There's a movement afoot to bring league - and a San Diego team - back in 2008

By Mark ZeiglerUNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

January 10, 2007

Less than two weeks after the Women's United Soccer Association folded in September 2003, swallowed by the financial version of the Red Sea, executives from the league were meeting to resurrect it.

Union-Tribune file photo

Torero Stadium was expanded to seat about 7,000 fans to accommodate the WUSA's San Diego Spirit.

Initially they hoped to play a scaled-down version of the WUSA in 2004.

Then it was a few WUSA exhibition “festivals” in 2004 with plans for a full relaunch in 2005.

Then it was 2006, at the latest.

We're into 2007, and the Women's Soccer Initiative Inc. (WSII) is still a one-woman office in San Francisco with pro-bono legal counsel and no Web site. But don't let the anonymity fool you. Persistence was always one of the endearing qualities of Julie Foudy and her soccer-playing cohorts, and it appears a new league really could be upon us.

It may or may not be called the WUSA, and it probably won't coax Mia Hamm out of retirement, and it might not have the national footprint of its predecessor, but WSII CEO Tonya Antonucci is confident enough about its prospects to “publicly state our intentions for 2008.” Antonucci says she already has firm commitments from several investors and hopes to have letters of intent signed by several others in time for a formal announcement sometime in early spring.

Antonucci also adds this about the chances of a franchise in San Diego: “I think it's likely.”

TROPHIES

Sal Zizzo: The UCLA sophomore midfielder from Patrick Henry High is named to the U.S. under-20 roster that goes to the Jan. 17-21 regional qualifying tourney in Panama for the 2007 World Youth Championships.

D.C. United: The Major League Soccer club is sold to a group of investors headed by real estate mogul Victor MacFarlane, making him the first African-American majority owner in MLS history.

RED CARDS

FIFA: Zinedine Zidane's infamous head butt in the final against Italy is just a footnote in the official report of the 2006 World Cup by the FIFA Technical Committee, as if it didn't happen at all.

Bulgaria: Four officials have already been suspended this season in the national league for making “significant errors” in matches, and there is now talk of bringing in foreign refs from Germany and elsewhe

One of the more interesting decisions facing Antonucci and her investors is whether to retain the name, WUSA. Pros: It still carries good brand equity, as marketers like to say, conjuring wistful images of Hamm playing in stadiums packed with screaming, pony-tailed girls decked out in No. 9 jerseys. Cons: The similarities between the leagues figure to end with both having professional women's soccer players.

Antonucci's model is not single entity, where the league technically “owns” the players and the teams, but the traditional franchise system where investors own and operate individual clubs. And unlike WUSA, which prided itself on its independence, the new venture would have what Antonucci calls “close partnerships” with Major League Soccer clubs to cut costs by using their facilities and staff.

The biggest difference, though, might be in something less tangible: expectation.

“This league is not going to define success as putting 30,000 people in the stands,” says Antonucci, a teammate of Foudy's at Stanford and the former head of Yahoo Sports. “We want to take a slow and steady growth type of approach. ... We hope to bring some humility and realism to the process. We'd rather define success a little more modestly, and overdeliver on that.”

Official WUSA figures put the losses in its three years of existence at $87 million. Antonucci says it was closer to $100 million.

To that end, the new league will be operated from the ground up as opposed to the WUSA's top-down model – “a local, grass roots approach,” in Antonucci's words. It figures to fall somewhere between the old WUSA and the current amateur women's leagues (W-League and WPSL) that often play before a smattering of fans in high school stadiums and operate on annual budgets under $100,000.

There might not be a national TV contract to start, and player salaries won't push six figures as they did in the WUSA. And owners won't pump money into stadiums, as Cox Communications did in expanding USD's Torero Stadium, without having full control of them.

Antonucci says she has an investor who is “very serious” about San Diego and “has made a commitment to the market,” but declined to identify that person. The biggest problem with San Diego, which in many ways was the WUSA's model team for its community support and TV ratings, is a suitable venue.

Torero Stadium holds about 7,000 and seems a perfect fit for a league perfectly satisfied with average attendance in the 4,000 or 5,000 range in its first few seasons. But it is owned by the university, and for that reason would be a “short-term solution” in Antonucci's eyes until a more financially viable facility is located.

Antonucci hopes to start with at least eight teams and has identified 11 other areas where investors either are committed for 2008 or have shown significant interest. Five are former WUSA venues: Atlanta, Boston, North Carolina, New York and Washington. Four others are MLS cities: Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City and Los Angeles. Rounding out the list are St. Louis and Rochester, N.Y.

In the meantime, there could be high-level women's soccer at Torero Stadium this spring and summer. The San Diego Sunwaves, which replace the Gauchos in the W-League, are finalizing negotiations with USD and would begin in May with a roster that includes Mexican icon Maribel Dominguez.